Nameless
by sosoonafter
Summary: Gallowglass wanders the world in what feels more and more a life of burdensome pointlessness. Until the day he stumbles upon a creature that defies his notion of what he needs and manages to wind herself into his life irrecoverably. Evolving story that is unwinding in my mind as subtly but insidiously as Elizabeth is in Gallowglasses. Vampire and Daemon pairing.
1. Chapter 1

Nameless

Chapter One

Nameless

Chapter One

Gallowglass found himself standing in the loading dock of a neighborhood bar without ever having consciously deciding to do so.

"Nick" called out a needling voice "Please, just one drink. I promise"

"It's never just a drink with you girl, we start with a drink and I end up greeting the sunrise." The male human grunted, shoving the last of the band equipment into the back of the compact car not meant to hold more than a days groceries. Out of practice and shear necessity he managed to close the hatchback door on the third attempt.

"Uncle, I need sleep. And so do you"

"How can you sleep after that", she replied as she twirled in the soft misting fog, face buoyed by the lingering high of so much concentrated attention that came off a good stage performance.

The twirling whirling dervish belonged to the voice of the siren that had dragged him out of his rooms and down the block to the bar, so tightly packed he couldn't she her perform. Where he listened, enthralled, as she plucked at the keys of an upright piano at least a hundred years old that looked like hell but elicited a tauntingly sumptuous true sound.

Her melodies and words had evoked the sweetest dreams and fiercest rage as her songs wove between love, lust and heartache. When she sang of heartache he watched with empathy as a man quietly slipped out of the entry. When she sang of love and lust he watched as more than one pair of eyes caught across the room and would attribute at least a dozen hook ups to tonight's music. And near the end of her performance a song so melancholy he had to wipe the blood from his eyes, least anyone see and know they shared the audience with a bloodsucker. She ended the night on an up-tempo easy catchy song that was easily dismissed amongst the masses of pop drivel these days, but it was the lingering unease of her melancholy song that had him slip out of the back and loiter as the crowds reluctantly parted into the night

She stopped twirling and her eyes met his and caught, something subtle but visceral communicated through them. The corner of her lip twitched upward in what promised soon to be a brilliant smile. The city seemed to pause on a breath. It was never easy for him to remain inconspicuous though he had centuries to practice his imposing figure was always notable, no matter his dress or manner. He was no more invisible here in the dark under the shade of awning

She appeared to shake off the intensity but continued holding his stare, though it might have simply been the act of clearing the gathering fog.

"No matter… Sam will buy me a drink" she said and her chin lifted as she slid her arm threw his and guided him back into the warmth and noise of the bar. The touch seemed to have broached some formality and made her familiar. He had not felt the touch of a warmblood in a remarkably long while.

He allowed himself to be guided along to the end of the bar where the regulars lingered as the staff tried against the stubborn set to close out the bar. No one gave that impression to his new companion and in fact the bartender closest to them stopped mid task and walked over to take their drink order. And, he supposed, to bask in the warmth and energy she seemed to exude.

"What will it be", she paused pointedly and smiled teasingly then added "Sam". It seemed to be a statement not a question of his name or identity and he wondered at the game she played but happily followed along.

"A whisky", he replied simply.

She turned toward the harried barkeep and smiled "How's your girl? I saw you helping her with the orders early in the shift; you're a good catch Ben" The bartender blushed, actually blushed. He was pretty sure within a few months of being a novice bartender they became immune to such things.

"I'll have mine sour, if you have time still, or we can move along if you need us out" she added addressing the bartender. He was quick to reassure her to stay as long as she would.

"If I'm to be Sam," Gallowglass asked, "what do I call you"?

And she noted his soft accent that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. "What would you call me?"

"There is power in a name" Came his soft burr.

"It isn't what they call you; it's what you answer to," She grinned.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." He quoted.

"I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I've never been able to believe it. I don't believe a rose WOULD be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage." She grinned

That elicited a genuine smile from the giant Gael, a rare feat indeed and he felt lighter for it. "I don't believe I know that reference"

"I can't imagine you spent your childhood reading Anne of Green Gables" She told him with arched eyebrows

His lips quirked at the thought, his own childhood being so many lifetimes ago and long forgotten.

"It was a part of yours I take it?"

"Yes, especially when I was young I practiced escapism through literature. It seemed like the only time I could ever hold still when I was young. I imagine you've read just about everything that ever was"

"Just because I don't sleep does not mean I spent my candled hours pent up over a book" he gruffed, though she looked unconvinced at his response. You hold some romantic notion of endless time and imagine you would spend it reading?"

"Ah alas I have but a moment of time and so as it will be as George RR Martin says A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one." Though if I had infinite time I might not be so impatient for his conclusion to Game of Thrones"

"Game of…" questioned Gallowglass.

"Never mind".

It was quiet a long moment. She couldn't escape the endless blue of the eyes of the man beside her. It felt as if they were the pure colorless blue of the deepest alpine lake whose water is absolutely colorless when poured into a glass; or the colorless air devoid of smog or smoke that passes into space and becomes blue by the absence of other color. They seemed to say something to her that he would never have said out loud. It was a rare stillness she experienced sitting in the presence of the vampire. A respite for the ever flowing, ever moving girl beside him. Especially so soon in the conversation when her usual manner was to chat each encounter up to the point of adopting them into family and as quickly move on to the next encounter. She continued to study the stoic Viking beside her, but her mood suddenly shifted from her native buoyancy to a melancholy akin to the quite song she had sung. She moved forward into his personal space, a remarkable thing to do to a predator.

"You have a beautiful smile, she said as her finger brushed against his lips, "a smile is the prettiest thing you can ever wear". Her hands reached intimately and slowly from his broad shoulders across his shirt to rest on his chest where his heart thudded once beneath her light as a feather touch, an uninvited touch, and he wondered at himself for allowing it.

"Someone has broken your heart" She said baldly

His hands which had but a split second before rested loosely at his lap now pinched painful around the sensitive undersides of both wrists proning the hands. "Your daemons want to follow emotion will lead you astray every time" He said coldly, slowly, at barely perceived audible level. The room temperature felt like it took a sudden drop and a chill set into her bones.

She held her own, never breaking eye contact "And your vampiric cold blooded impassive soul will lead to a very long dull lonely life" The air around them seemed to fizz a moment and die out. Slowly she perceived again the monotony of the sounds that are usual in the clearing up of a bar

His hands dropped but hers remained, undaunted

"It was many and many a year ago,  
In a kingdom by the sea,  
That a maiden there lived whom you may know  
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;  
And this maiden she lived with no other thought  
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,  
In this kingdom by the sea;  
But we loved with a love that was more than love-  
I and my Annabel Lee;  
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven  
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,  
In this kingdom by the sea,  
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling  
My beautiful Annabel Lee;  
So that her highborn kinsman came  
And bore her away from me,  
To shut her up in a sepulchre  
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,  
Went envying her and me-  
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,  
In this kingdom by the sea)  
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,  
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love  
Of those who were older than we-  
Of many far wiser than we-  
And neither the angels in heaven above,  
Nor the demons down under the sea,  
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul  
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams  
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;  
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes  
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;  
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side  
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,  
In the sepulchre there by the sea,  
In her tomb by the sounding sea."

Her recitation, like her music conveyed all the emotion of a broken yet undying love that was inhuman and utterly devastating.

He shrugged her off and made a Scottish growl without meaning, "nothing so dramatic and grinned at her, just friend zoned".

She gave as much a noiseless answer "it seemed like a Poeish moment." He voice uplifting at the end with humor.

"Let's leave Poe where he belongs, shall we" and the mood lightened considerably after, though she felt as if she'd come across a barrier not easily scaled.

"It's a demons nature to feel in different proportions to other creatures. It is a curse, she said with a wry grimace, and a gift she gestured offhandedly to the shook her head to clear it, "You may call me Elizabeth, it's what my parents named me"

He paused, looping back around to the beginning of the conversation."Yep, defiantly a daemon," he commented and cocked his head to the side. "But it is not your true name" She gave him her full attention and smiled a genuine smile "

I have not yet found my name" she said and the feeling given behind the statement was not one of loss but one of excitement in a continued adventure. Her energy had an intoxicating pull and he remained at her side through 2 more drinks, through the bars closing and out on the darkened city's pavement, talking in the habit of most daemons with topics melting and sharply incongruously changing, yet always captivating and fulfilling. He found himself through a string of unlikely events to be watching the sunrise through the weakening fog under the Golden Gate Bridge with a warm blood tucked into his shoulder.

"You are cold" He remarked to her.

"Yes" She said as she lifted her head higher into the salty breeze and smiled into it. She considered a moment "It is not unpleasant it just is and when I go in a have a warm drink soon I will feel my skin expand and the delicious warmth will unfurl and bloom from my belly to my toes" her eyes twinkled.

"You are alive" he said with a catch in his throat.

They parted shortly after with the magic of the evening jarring against the start of a new day for the routine commuters oblivious to the magic they had slept through and he realized she had never once asked for his name, nor had he supplied it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

She wasn't even into the chorus of her first song when she felt his eyes, intent on her, and knew exactly where in her audience he was located. It was only her 3rd night at the Gaslight and yet word had spread quickly of a girl who could set your soul free with her music. Creatures and humans alike piled in, far exceeding the fire code capacity, attracted by the energy and magnetism held within. With the vampires eyes on her she felt absolutely invisible and fell head long into each piece.

Performance can, at times, be a weary occupation. For each of her audience these moments were a one off. A moment to enjoy outside the monotony of their mundane or, sometimes less than mundane, lives. For her it might be the hundredth or so rendition of the same tune in a lifetime of Deja vu moments, albeit it in a new town and in front of new souls every few weeks as her wandering nature got the better of her. She gave everything to those who attended her shows, connecting a feeding them ang in exchange glowing from their energy and regard. Tonight felt different, tonight felt alive in some sixth sense, as if the room had expanded to accommodate every creature and every emotion therein. Every few minutes she felt her eyes pulled to those piercing blue ones in the corner of the room that had utterly transfixed her. Music is the food of the soul and her audience was ravenous. Her voice was pure and magic and filed every crevice of the warm overstuffed room joining the otherwise divided masses coalesced by the same needs and stirrings.

Her set might have lasted 15 minutes or it night have been 4 hours as far as time existed in that space so transported from reality were her audience. Every heart that left that evening felt whole and every mind felt at ease.  
And, as the bar closed out Gallowglass again found himself seated at a bar stool drawn in by this undefinable Daemon. When she spied him as she came out of the backroom she quipped "play it again Sam" and moved to his side She had smiled genuinely and openly at him as she climbed onto the stool, holding his shoulder to steady herself. He marveled at her obvious physical comfort with his unworldly strangeness and wondered if she had been around many vampires in her life, or just felt her ease in every situation. She was quieter tonight less prone to flights of fancy, sated by the performance and pleasantly exhausted by the giving of it.

"Do you ever, when finding yourself on the road, realize you have come to a place, and yet not recall the circumstances that brought you there?" Gallowglass stated and in stating confessed his mode of return this evening.

"All the time," she replied

"I thought you might", he studied her anew.

"What color is your hair?"

She laughed "all of them" and wound her fingers through the locks "as you see"

"No", he replied feeling invited to also wind his fingers through the soft down of her multihued thick hair. "Your real hair"

"I can't remember" she smiled then laughed in recall of last night's conversation in this same spot "I'm still trying to find it"

His hand lingered behind her ear and he felt the moment her hormones shifted and watched the coloring spread under her skin. So alive he thought, like lightning in a bottle. Her breath caught and held and she slowly released it.

"It stinks", he told her, wrinkling his nose "I can hardly scent your underlying signature with all that chemical overpowering you"

"Well, I like it," she responded,]. And that was that, no excuse, no defending or explaining it away. She liked it and so it was. He appreciated her more for it.

She finished off her drink and swiveled he stool so that she fit between his spread legs.

"I'm going to turn in" she murmured softly, "early morning photo call"

"You are a model?" he said taken aback

"Would it shock you so?" Her eyebrows lifted and she chastised him teasingly for his incredulous response, then guffawed. "No, I'm the photographer". She swiveled the little bit more to exit and brushed his thigh as she regrouped.

The warmth stilled him and he found the night's company he had expected with her had run too short. He ran his hands absently through his beard and across his lips. "Can I walk you home?" he asked through hooded eyes  
"You may", she replied shyly "though it's not far"

He held the door for her and as she exited she claimed his hand in hers in a bold move. He shifted at the strangeness in it. Her hand so petite and warm in his own. "Do you really stretch to a full cord with these fingers?" he asked splaying them out against his massive paws. She laughed and responded that it was once a challenge but one she had overcome. He felt the strength camouflaged in her small grip, the underlying steel that did not so easily fit her easy way and petite appearance. Only a few blocks from the Gaslight he was surprised to find her leading the way into a residence inn a bit shabbier state than the immaculate craftsman row house he had left early in the evening when he shirked off his usual duties to play hooky to watch her sing again.

"Would you like to come up?" she asked, trying for casual cool while looking at his shoulder, belying that with enough vulnerability to fail to meet his eyes.

He settled back into himself wondering at his answer, knowing on some level he had already decided, and yet was surprised by it. It had been so long since he had sought out the company of another, especially that of a warm blood. And yet he had, hadn't he? For it was not this strange creature that beckoned him out of his self-imposed abstinence, surely? He felt for the first time in a long while that the world was happening to him rather than he forcing his will upon the world. In a strange way the loss of control was a respite, a reprieve. He did not feel entirely responsible for his actions.

He nodded once and again she took his hand in hers to lead up the stairs. They entered the generic studio room with walls and décor two decades out of fashion. The kitchen was small and every surface was stacked with an odd assortment of random foodstuffs, notebooks, books and, quite randomly a spring and rubber duck. He noticed the hotel bedspread stuffed in the corner of the open closet. A homemade patchwork quilt replaced it on the bed and a huge fluffy pillow at the top.

Elizabeth meanwhile breezed straight in, put down her bag and busied herself making a cup of hot chocolate from a packet. He felt quite odd standing at the center of the room, out of place. She pulled out the chair tucked under the built in desk and pulled off several clothing items and gestured for him to make himself comfortable. She then proceeded to make her way to the bathroom. He sat quietly for a moment but the quiet gave him too much time to reflect and he was trying very hard not to think at the moment. There are few things that can destroy a sexual tryst quite as much as thought. Sex is instinctive, unreflective, and spontaneous, while thought is careful, uninvolved, and judgmental. To think during sex is a direct violation of a fundamental law of intercourse. He shook it off.

He reached for the closest object on the desk which happened to be one of the many spiral bound notebooks in the room and quickly became lost in the hand written content- an amazing abstract flow of consciousness from the most quirky and precocious Daemon he had come across. He hardly registered her quiet return from the bathroom and looked up to find her watching him sipping hot chocolate from a mug that read "I fucking miss you Bitch" on the side. Her glance was anything but judgmental and the warm look she gave had him slowly standing to come toward the kitchen. She was in front of him before he could find a polite way to apologize for his intrusion of her writings and had wound her hands through his wavy shoulder length hair making slow circles with her thumbs at the base of his skull. It was she and not he that initiated the kiss and, while it was slow and searching, it held no tentativeness, no self-consciousness. He was content to let her take the lead feeling absolved of any guilt in the taking of her. He felt himself softening to her, relaxing into her and discovered the joy of allowing a woman to take the lead.

She was not aggressive, just sure and true. Her lips elicited a soundless sigh from him as her body melted into his. She lifted her legs around his broad hips, her wide skirt flowing easily out of the way and he felt he warmth against his crotch stirring him to life. In his arms her mouth shifted to an easier advantage from the previous height difference and she fitted perfectly against his chest. His mouth sought her sensitive skin at the nape of her neck, at the tops of her breasts, and finally homed in on her overly sensitized nipples as he deposited her on the bed. The act of removing their clothing was not rushed but allowed time for exploration and soft touches into otherwise unseen nooks and crannies in the warmth of her low belly and across her hips and down her legs eliciting goosebumps; And in the searing warmth of her hands along his chest and down the inside of his thighs brought him to an intensity of sensation he couldn't remember experiencing before.

She turned in his arms and rolled him onto his back straddling his hips, enveloping him in a deliberate smooth move. Once there she paused to indulge in the fullness she felt before setting the pace to her content. He reached between her legs in an effort to give her as much pleasure as he took from her and the blistering heat against his cold hands brought her to an unexpected climax, as she shuddered above him he lost all control and lost himself still further into an act that never really felt fully within his control.

She settled limply against his chest and he took care to wrap the quilt tightly against her back. "s' okay, I'm not cold" she murmured against his neck. And he gathered her tight to him as the fog rolled against the windows making him feel they were the only 2 souls left in the city.


	3. Chapter 3

Nameless Chapter 3

"_She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together." —J. D. Salinger, "A Girl I Knew"_

She stirred briefly in the predawn light stretching her arm out under her pillow. She was on the delicate edge of sleep and very little could either lull her back to dreaming or release her consciousness to the world.

Gallowglass was of a mind to slip out of the room and head back home, perhaps get a few hours of work in. "Ellie", he said softly into her ear, daring himself to wake her. She responded in half sleep with a kiss unerringly finding his lips in her half-conscious state.

And with that his brief encounter turned to two as he made love to her again languidly and maybe even lazily, unrushed and serene, glorying in her sighs and coos. He brought her to climax with his fingers, cock still buried deep and she went from slow tranquil pleasure to spasms of bliss in the blink of an eye. She fell back to sleep, a smile on her lips. In sleep she was angelic, multihued hair falling in soft pillows around her alabaster skin. Her oval face was rounder and softer in sleep a flush just fading in her cheeks. When you studied her closely, as he did now, freckles appeared like the dim stars in the cities light drenched night. Her frame was slight with soft baby fat and a steel core that made fondling and cuddling a joy.

He thought back over the centuries to other women he had had, but it all seemed so long ago and they blurred like too many colors mixed together turning to a dull unappealing brown. When he was very young it was usually whores or vampire clingers and blood was usually involved, the cultural norms being so far removed from what it has become. It had been since before Diana was born that he had felt roused from his routine enough to find a carnal diversion. Maybe it had simply been long enough, maybe he was finally getting comfortable in his own skin again…

He awoke with a start, instantly alert. One moment he had been sound asleep, the next he was crouched frozen in a fighting stance beside a bed in a studio motel. Wait, what? He'd been asleep? Alarming to say the least. And there she was humming to herself in the window light, absently cleaning a cameras lenses while pulling things into and back out of a camera bag.

"Hiya" she said shyly to him as he slowly, gracefully stood to full height. "I wasn't sure if I…I wanted to make you any breakfast, because …" and she shrugged. "Well, at the risk of sounding stupid I wasn't sure if you actually eat or drink anything. I thought your kind didn't sleep though and I'm wrong on that one so what do I know….I didn't really want to assume anything but I wanted to make an effort of something and not leave you feeling unwelcome…and I'm babbling, sorry I do that a bit" She said cocking her head to the side a smiling at her own fumbling. "anyway, hiya" She turned away from him them, maybe feeling shy or maybe just giving him a moment of privacy to collect himself.

Gallowglass was slightly unnerved, and unusually so. It caught him off guard and he felt unsteady, perplexed. He hadn't really anticipated waking after Ellie and was caught off guard by the awkward extraction from a one night stand that he was sure was common the world over, but one he had not experienced in, well, forever. His brows furrowed and he chose to answer to the immediate question and ruminate on the rest when he had a moment. "Eating can sometimes be a complex thing for a vampire. I, we, require little sustenance of the usual human variety and I have no need of any breakfast at this time, though I appreciate the offering." She fluttered about the kitchen grabbing a notebook here, laptop there. He was struck by their contrast her constant movement to his solidity. Hers was the motion of water- always finding the lowest ground, tumbling or flowing, seeping, or evaporating. Even when water seems at its most still and tranquil it is always in motion molecules dancing.

He dressed himself as he watched her continued puttering. She held her camera to the window frame a clicked a few frames, adjusting several settings with each, then took a random snapshot of a rubber duck and readjusted a bit more. Her unceasing movement halted abruptly as her eyes caught on his. It felt as though a whole conversation occurred within that look. A moment that lingered out of usual time. She seemed as though she was holding her breath. Her hands stirred around her camera. She started to say something then hesitated. He waited patient for her.

"Can I… would it be okay, if I take your picture" She asked quietly, uncharacteristically shy. As though knowing it was a more intimate ask than the invitation extended last night. More so then sharing her body with him. Ellie found herself wanting the moments with him to stretch longer, she was unlikely to ever see the vampire again and a picture maybe would make the whole night real, fill in a story that felt altogether too short.

"Yes" he replied simply.

And she stilled cocking her head to the side, as if hearing or seeing the moment with more senses than he possessed. Her camera came up slowly to her face and she clicked away a few times and then approached him. She ran her hand along the whiskers of his jaw line and subtly positioned him just so and stood back to take 3 more snaps, her hands caressing the lenses. She brought the camera back down and smiled at him so sweetly.

"I have to leave now, or I'll be late. Do you need more time here?" She asked him

"No, I'll walk you out," he replied.

She grabbed her bag and he opened her door, his hands unconsciously going to the small of her back.

"Where are you going to", he asked.

"Golden Gate Park", she replied "I have 2 engagement shoots and a family shoot scheduled" She stopped at the corner and turned in towards him. He looked up to see the bus stop sign and made a nonsensical Scottish noise that was beyond definition but served as a acknowledgement of the moment and its end.

"And so this is where I leave you then" He smiled a genuine smile at her then and kissed her briefly on the cheek and yet the simple contact felt more affectionate than it should. She smiled back at him and gave him a simple "goodbye then, Sam".

"My name's not Sam" He replied

"I know" She said amused and shrugged.

He searched her face one last time and with a nod moved down the street and then just before turning the corner he looked back. Her eyes danced as she caught him and her whole body warmed with the feeling. It wasn't just her; the night _had_ been magic, for them both.


End file.
